Attorney’s Treatment Gives Hint of Jiang Zemin’s Fate

<Editor’s Note: Zheng Enchong (鄭恩寵) is an attorney from Shanghai. He represented or advised around 500 families who received little or no compensation from the authorities when they were evicted from their homes during the urban redevelopment of Shanghai.>

In 2003, a group of those residents tried to file a lawsuit against the authorities because they did not receive adequate compensation, alleging the officials were corrupt. The officials involved included former Shanghai Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Chief Huang Ju (黃菊), then Shanghai Party Chief Chen Liangyu (陳良宇), and then Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng (韓正). Zheng Enchong also claimed that sons of former CCP top leader Jiang Zemin (江澤民) were involved and were extremely corrupt.

Wenhua China

There used to be a “Wenhua China” (文化中國). Western scholars such as John King Fairbank have observed and described it. I would like to re-raise the issue and take a look at how China evolved from that to a modern state, a politics-centric state, and later a Party-centric state.

I hope this article can offer people a new angle to re-look at China and re-think its future.

Over a period of time, Global Times has written a number of editorials which show a consistent response to the North Korea nuclear issue. The following are representative of that viewpoint:

• 社评：新制裁压向朝鲜，突破僵局不取决中国 11-30-2016
Breaking the Deadlock of North Korea Nuclear Issue Does Not Depend on China
• 社评：韩美日与朝鲜若要对撞，中国拦不住 09-20-2016
If Korea, U.S. and Japan collide with North Korea, China Can Not Stop
• 社评：朝鲜核试“中国应负责”是歪理邪说 09-12-2016
“That China Should Take Responsibility” for North Korea’s Nuclear Test Is Nonsense
• 社评：朝鲜核弹搅局够，战略威慑差得远 09-09-2016
North Korea’s Nuclear Test Can Achieve the Effect of Making Trouble But Is Far Away from Strategic Deterrence
• 社评：朝鲜提炼核武钚，请美韩多着着急吧 08-19-2016
North Korea Refines Plutonium for Nuclear Weapons; The U.S. and Korea Should Worry
• 社评：给制裁朝鲜获得成功留些时间 03-11-2016
Leave Extra Time for the Sanctions against North Korea to Succeed

On November 30, following North Korea’s fifth nuclear test, the UN Security Council passed new sanctions against North Korea. China’s state media Global Times (Huanqiu) then published an editorial to point out that whether the sanctions succeed or not is not up to China.

The article said, “Since China is the largest target for North Korea’s coal exports, the West and South Korea are of the opinion that China’s attitude is the key to whether the new Security Council resolution can be implemented and achieve its objectives. We have to say that this kind of thinking is problematic.”

“Regarding the sanctions against North Korea, China has suffered the most in terms of economic and diplomatic losses. China and North Korea maintained normal trade in the past, while the West and South Korea had almost zero contact with North Korea. China’s difficulty in controlling the long border between China and North Korea is not as simple as signing a name [on the resolution] in the same manner as the other countries that do not have trade relations with North Korea.”

“Time has proved that imposing severe sanctions will not work alone. The United States and South Korea need to take the initiative to improve North Korea’s security environment. Pyongyang feels the pressure of facing the risk of foreign subversion at any time. The United States and South Korea must try to seek a breakthrough in security and mutual trust with North Korea. Otherwise it will not work no matter what kind of sanctions are applied against North Korea. Do not expect North Korea to yield even if it becomes the world’s poorest country.”

“The fundamental reason for the deadlock on the North Korea nuclear issue is that the United States and South Korea cannot dialogue with North Korea. There is no mutual trust in each other. The more North Korea is rebellious, the more military exercises the U.S. and South Korea conduct and the more stringent are the sanctions that apply. In turn, North Korea responds with a more intense nuclear test. The two sides have dragged all of Northeast Asia into this conflict. The United States and South Korea always want China to increase the pressure on North Korea, or, even better, to have China and North Korea fight against each other so that they can wait and stand by to enjoy the results.”

“Now, the international community has reached an agreement on the new sanctions against North Korea, but all the parties still have very different ways of thinking [about how it may work], or even totally opposite ways. China proposes comprehensive management to resolve the nuclear issue, and all the parties involved assume their respective due responsibilities. Such a complex problem cannot be that one party is all wrong, while the others all seek a higher justice than God.”

“Sanctions have been so severe. If does not work again, the United States and South Korea should not complain about others actions. They should consider a good reflection of their own.”

On December 6, the information office of the State Council of China held a press conference at which it introduced the White Paper on “China’s Traditional Chinese Medicine” and its development. This is the first time that the Chinese government has issued a white paper to introduce the development of Traditional Chinese Medicine and its characteristics, the related national policies, and major measures for the development of Chinese medicine in China.

The White Paper revealed that Traditional Chinese Medicine faces a serious crisis and may be destroyed. The main problem is the poor quality of Chinese medicine.

Well-known Chinese news site Sina recently reported that Hong Kong once again ranked at the top the list in the newly released Human Freedom Index Report. The Canadian Fraser Institute also ranked Taiwan number 26 in the same 2016 report. This is the sixth consecutive year Hong Kong won this honor. The ranking is based on personal freedom and economic freedom, under which there are tens of sub-categories for detailed evaluation. China ranked 141 in the Index, very close to the bottom three: Iran (157), Yemen (157) and Syria (159). The Report reflected the research that Fraser conducted; it publishes the freedom study results annually. The report also indicated that the freedom level is heavily related to the democratic system the country/region has. In its comment on Hong Kong’s ranking, the institute pointed out that the index may be lowered if the Mainland breaks the “One Nation, Two Systems” structure. The United States is ranked at 23 in the Report.

The popular Hong Kong newspaper Oriental Daily published a series of articles on its official website commenting on the massive monitoring system that the Mainland police established. The Mainland Ministry of Public Safety just released a draft of new regulations that govern how the Mainland’s police use video monitoring technologies at different levels of the government, which, it is widely considered, the government abuses. It is very unusual that a significant pro-Mainland newspaper criticizes the Mainland’s national-level security system. In one article especially, the reporter directly named the former Chinese leader, Jiang Zemin, to be the force behind the development of the nationwide secret monitoring system. The article pointed out that Jiang’s regime approved the Golden Shield Project, which was designed to provide 360-degree monitoring of the entire Chinese population. Publicly available documents showed that Jiang Zemin, his son Jiang Mianheng, and the leadership of the Public Safety Ministry then headed the project. The multi-billion-dollar privacy-intrusive project had no record of any kind for approval or authorization from China’s People’s Congress. Oriental Daily has been Hong Kong’s number one in circulation since 1976, with a record readership of over 3,100,000.